Stickbowman™, where did he come from? Who drew it? Historians and Archeologists can go back thousands of years to answer that question. Stickbowmen have been drawn on cave walls on every continent, from the first caveman to the last Indian. Ishi of the Yana tribe of Northern California to the Iceman, frozen for centuries holding his Stickbow, and yes, Fred Bear.

There are many others. Chief Compton, Ishi, Maurice and Will Thompson, Pope and Young, Howard Hill, Ben Pearson, Nils Gumley, Glen St. Charles, Al Reader, and anyone else past or present, who walked with a stick bow or roamed the hardwoods, fields, and farms from Alaska to Florida, to the great African continent.

“It is often said that each of us mean different things to different people and will be remembered for different reasons by different people” Frank Scott noted. “Surely these men will be remembered as Stickbowmen.”

While at the Compton Traditional Shooting Rendezvous held in Michigan, June, 2008, I learned of a little Stickbowman figure drawn on some of Bear’s bows. My friend, Al Reader, showed me in his Fred Bear collection of bows a little Stickbowman drawn on a few of the take down bows. Al explained to me that Fred Bear had signed thousands of bows with Fred Bear or Fred Bear, Happy Hunting but only drew Stickbowmen figures on 20-30 bows.

It is my belief that Fred Bear and Al Reader would want this little figure to live on. It is my hope that this little Stickbowmen figure moves you to the hills and valleys, to tree stands and old farms with overgrown apple trees, to hardwoods with acorns thumping the ground. With a stickbow in hand, be it Recurve, Longbow or Self bow, you are a STICKBOWMAN.

GOOD HUNTING

 

Rich and Ryan Tiberio

Graylingdeerslayer

Al Reader (L) with Fred Bear (R)
in his Gainesville, Florida office

Original Fred Bear Autograph
With StickBowMan Drawing